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University of Louisville is near city's most crime-ridden area. How safe are students?

University of Louisville ranked among the top 25 safest college campuses this year. But Louisville Metro Police data could reveal a different story.

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University of Louisville students often walk along this path outside Davidson Hall on the Belknap campus after dark. Campus security is becoming more of an issue lately.
Sep. 20, 2017(Photo: Sam Upshaw Jr./CJ)Buy Photo

Around campus, robberies, harassment and theft aren't uncommon. It's an urban school; walking around at night free of concern isn't always in the realm of possibility.

"It's not like a crazy war zone or anything like that," said Eric Bush, a sophomore finance and political science major. But still, "I don't want new students to see that (ranking) and think they can just wander around with no worries."

When the Courier Journal reported earlier this year on the ranking of safest college campuses compiled by rentcollegepads.com that put Louisville at No. 24, some students told the Courier Journal that didn't accurately represent their experience.

The math, they suggested, neglects to take into account the loose borders of the University of Louisville's campus.

"The statistical data is not untrue. There are few crimes that happen within the university perimeter," said Chris Bird, the Student Government Association's services vice president. "However, the award was not accurately matching the student experience. We think of (the school) as being an area that extends beyond campus, to affiliate housing, some off-campus properties."

Louisville Metro Police officers who patrol the university's surrounding streets often encounter more crime than officers anywhere else in the city, according to a Courier Journal analysis of crimes reported to the department in 2017.

“Where any police department is busiest is where people are. People live and work here – that just generates a lot of occasion to call the police.”

LMPD Maj. Joshua Judah

LMPD's Fourth Division, which stretches from just south of Beechmont Park to roughly Broadway, surrounds the university's campus. The division's patrol area is made up of smaller designated zones where police make the rounds.

One of those zones has been the location of more crimes, violent or otherwise, than any other patrol area in the city in 2017. A portion of that zone, which travels roughly along Seventh Street, south to Interstate 264, is a block away from University of Louisville's main campus.

Roughly 688 violent crimes – a designation that can include rape, sexual assault, robbery, assault and murder – have been reported in the zone so far in 2017. And, last year, it was the police beat with the most overall crimes with roughly 4,500 incidents. It had the second-most crimes of any region within the city in 2015.

LMPD Maj. Joshua Judah, who oversees the Fourth Division, noted the division is down almost six percent in their year-to-date comparison of crime, compared to the same time period last year.

He also pointed out that, in addition to seeing the most reported crime, the division has perhaps the highest population density. In roughly 10 square miles, excluding Churchill Downs, U of L and the fairgrounds, there are about 75,000 people, Judah said.

"Where any police department is busiest is where people are. People live and work here – that just generates a lot of occasion to call the police," he said, adding the division is the "central crossroads" of Louisville.

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University of Louisville students often walk along this path outside Grawemeyer Hall on the Belknap campus after dark. Campus security is becoming more of an issue lately. Emergency intercoms are interspersed throughout the campus.
Sep. 20, 2017(Photo: Sam Upshaw Jr./CJ)

The university saw relatively few crimes on its campus, according to 2016 Clery reporting data, the most recent available. The Clery Act requires higher education institutions that receive federal funding to produce an annual security report that includes, among other things, statistics of campus crime for the past three years.

For example, there were no murders or negligent manslaughters reported on Louisville's campus in 2015 or 2016, according to the report. There was one aggravated assault in 2016, down from two the previous year.

University police say their low crime numbers could be a reflection of their efforts to reach out to students and concentrate patrols in areas where students tend to congregate. The department envisions itself as a "guardian," said police Maj. Aaron Graham, who works in compliance and external support for ULPD.

"We're here as a support unit, just like any other support unit within the university itself. We establish relationships with the students, with the parents, with the entirety of the community, so that they can come and use us just like any resource that may be available here at the university," Graham said.

Campus police also enjoy a cooperative relationship with LMPD officers assigned around campus, according to the university's interim chief of police, Lt. Col. Kenny Brown. Officers look at crime reports daily to identify trends or patterns, sharing that information with LMPD.

"If we've got a theft problem, I may call Fourth Division and ask: 'We're having a theft problem, are you guys seeing it?' Because we want to know if it's unique to us, (or) if it's a citywide or even a divisionwide problem," Brown said. "That way, we can kind of know, is it someone in the area causing the problem versus someone who may be coming into the area?"

Plus, the upgraded 'L Trail' on campus provides a well-lit route through campus on some major arterial pathways, an initiative many students said was beneficial.

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University of Louisville students often walk along this path outside Grawemeyer Hall on the Belknap campus after dark. Campus security is becoming more of an issue lately. Emergency intercoms are interspersed throughout the campus.
Sep. 20, 2017(Photo: Sam Upshaw Jr./CJ)

Comparing crime rates between campuses can be difficult, Brown warned: "The Fourth Division's probably the busiest division in the city of Louisville. Is that other university in an area that has less crime or more crime?"

To limit variables at play, university police measure themselves next to schools of a similar size and urban setting – namely, the universities of Kentucky, Cincinnati, Pittsburgh and Alabama at Birmingham.

Compared to those, the University of Louisville saw largely similar or lower rates of crimes in areas like robbery, aggravated assault, and burglary.

Perhaps most notably in comparison to other universities, Louisville students appear to report far fewer sex offenses, including instances of rape and fondling.

Those figures likely don't capture the full number of sexual assaults that occur on campus, though, given the time it can take to come to terms with an assault and the range of people one could report to, said Tisha Pletcher, of the university's PEACC (Prevention, Education and Advocacy on Campus and in the Community) Center.

The center, which works to end power-based personal violence, saw 28 people in the 2016-2017 academic year who reported a sexual assault incident, including rape, fondling and sodomy, among other things.

"Does it happen a lot? Yes. It happens way more than I want it to happen here. If I could work myself out of a job, that's what I want at the end of the day," she said. "Does it happen any more here than any other campus? No."

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University of Louisville students often walk along this path outside the Kent School of Social Work on the Belknap campus after dark. Campus security is becoming more of an issue lately.
Sep. 20, 2017(Photo: Sam Upshaw Jr./CJ)

To ward off crimes, some students gravitate toward self-defense. Samantha Scott, a senior psychology major, once carried pepper spray around with her, but now has a mini-taser.

"I enjoy the accessibility of it," he said. "... There's certain things you just can't get around, no matter how nice a city is. There's gonna be muggers, people are gonna steal things."

Students who grew up in suburbia may need to be a little more "aware of their surroundings," living in the middle of a city, Judah said.

But students at U of L, generally, are very safe, the Fourth Division commander said.

"Between the university police, the university themselves, the students looking out for themselves and us in the background," Judah said, "there's no reason for any U of L student to feel fearful anywhere that they would go: whether on campus, or in the neighborhoods around it."